There are various reasons why people write poetry. Some poems tell a story     1     describe something in a way that will give the reader a strong     2     (impress). Others try

    3     ( convey) certain emotions, Poets use many different     4     (form) of poems to express     5     (they). In this text, however, we will look     6     a few of the simpler forms. Some of the first poetry     7     (write) in English is nursery rhymes. Children learned these when they were very young. Nursery rhymes like     8     one on the right are still a common type of children’s poetry. They delight small children     9     they have strong rhythm, rhyme and a lot of repetition. This     10     (make) them easy to learn and recite. By playing with the words in nursery rhymes, children learn about language.

I was pushed into writing the “top ten problems the young face” after I attended a school programme, where I had the opportunity to interact with many     1     (teenage). Each conversation was only adding one more item to the list of problems.

About two     2     (three) of girls in year nine to year twelve “worry about their appearance” . While there were no gender differences in worries about school, girls are     3     (anxiety) about getting along with parents and what to do when they are older. Girls are     4     (prove) to worry more about personal problems and romantic relationship, and are more     5     (concern) about their own images in peer group. In fact, the only thing     6     boys worry about more than girls is succeeding in their physical activities.

    7     parents need to do is to look at ways to help teens and take     8     (responsible) for what we are exposing our teens to right now. We cannot afford     9     (ignore) the parental duties of bringing them up well from the time they are young. Televisions, computers and other gadgets that they spend most of the time     10     cannot give them a bright future.

Chinese net users have found a new way to battle desertification by playing virtual (虚拟的) planting games. Ant Forest,     1     is under Ant Financial of the Alibaba Group, told the Global Times that they had planted over 50 million trees covering about 507 square kilometers across China from 2016 to 2019.

Ant Forest is the first such game in China. In the Ant Forest plan, any activity     2    (consider) low carbon, including walking, taking public transport and online payments, will be converted into virtual “green energy”. The energy will be used to grow a virtual tree in the “forest” of the     3    (user). They exchange     4    for a real tree by paying the corresponding energy. Ant Forest will plant the real trees in spring and autumn each year     5    the help of local authorities in the desert areas. This way of planting trees    6     (recognize) on October 23, 2018 by the National Afforestation Committee as    7    means for citizens to fulfill their obligation of planting trees.

The Chinese government attaches great    8     (important)to the protection of ecosystems. China aims     9    (increase)the forest cover to 23 percent by 2020, and to 26 percent by 2035. A new study using data from NASA satellite shows that the Earth becomes    10    (green) as a result of ambitious tree-planting programs in China.

As I worked as a sports journalist for my first 10 years with China Daily, I have     1     (close) followed how China has grown from a minor player in the international sports arena into a global sports power.

    2     it had a huge population, China was not much of a global force in sports until the1980s. However, it was very good at table tennis at that time. The first major international breakthrough for China came in 1981     3     its women’s volleyball team won the Women’s Volleyball World Cup. Understandably, sports fans went crazy. Parades celebrating the victory     4     (hold) on many university campuses     5     some students shouting slogans such as “revitalizing (振兴) China”, which has since become the goal of the nation.

    6     (motivate) by the victory, China invested more of the limited resources in training athletes. The investment paid off, as China got     7     (it) first Olympic gold medal in shooting in 1984. In all, Chinese athletes won 15 gold medals in the Los Angeles Olympics,    8     (set) the course to becoming a global sports power. In     9     past decade, Chinese athletes have been winning about 120 gold medals in international sports games every year.

As China invests more resources in the sports sector thanks to the fast-paced economic development and winning world titles becoming normal for Chinese athletes, the government started encouraging ordinary     10     (citizen) to play sports.

Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. My favourite player was LeBron James. Paul’s favourite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy     1     played for the Charlotte Hornets, although we actually agree that they are both champions.

Bogues was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the shortest ever player in the NBA. And guess what? Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, too! Paul knew that     2     (be) shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration, Paul once said, “if Bogues could make it, why not me?”

Our coach was not so sure. Paul had to try out many times just for making the team. He was still usually on the bench, being just a replacement,     3     was really tough on him. Everyone knew Paul had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Paul didn’t get a chance.

This week, The Lions were playing our main competitors, The Bears, a team     4     record this season had been perfect. They hadn’t lost a single game. It would be a tough one. Paul didn’t know he’d soon get the chance that he’d been waiting     5    .